Woman claims she damaged UK lotto ticket worth €43m in the wash

A lotto ticket worth €43m appears to have been put through the wash and the bar code has been destroyed.

Since the bumper £66m (€87m) draw on January 9 UK Lottery staff have been searching for the second winning ticket. A couple from Scotland had come forward shortly after the draw to claim their prize but the other winner had remained a mystery.

Lottery officials did say that the winning ticket was bought in the city of Worcester.

Yesterday, a woman walked into a newsagent in Worcester with a tattered piece of paper. The winning numbers were all there, but the date, barcode and serial number had been washed off.

The woman told the Times that she had found the ticket in the pocket of her jeans and had dried it out with a hairdryer.

The newsagent couldn't scan it to confirm the win and the woman has been advised to send the scraps to Camelot, who run the UK Lottery.

A Camelot spokeswoman confirmed it is aware of the case and said any claim has to be made in writing. "She has to go through the same process as anybody else," she added.

"They basically need to submit a claim in writing within 30 days of the draw stating where they bought it, the time, date and any other details they can provide.

"We get quite a few of these, we get them with any unclaimed prizes and with this being quite a large amount we would expect several claims."

No decision will be made by Camelot until 180 days after the draw was made, the time given anyone with an intact ticket to come forward.